A Shard of Darkness: The Setting
by avrjoe
Summary: The Tale of the Shard of Darkness itself. This is the Setup for all the stories I write in this world.


**A Shard of Darkness Setting**

**Authors Note:**

This is the story of the setting of the Shards of Darkness world. I have several stories I am writing for this setting. This information was found prefacing Willows Story but based on feedback received privately from a reader I have moved it here. Also, as mysteries of the world setting are revealed they will be included in the text here to give a wider picture once secrets of the setting are revealed.

The Shard of Darkness is a setting for stories set in a World of Darkness. It is not _the_ World of Darkness, it is _a_ Word of Darkness. A world where existence has continued past the Apocalypse or Gehenna or what ever one would call it of 2004. Such an event ended, not with a bang, but a whimper. By and large the world continued as it was. However, changes are on the horizon. The first of these changes came as fallout from the distraction of the supernatural world in dealing with the supposed end times as described in various mythos.

During that time people known as Projectors came out of the darkness and into the light. With them came the startling realisation that ghosts were a real, provable phenomena. The world did not end at this revelation. It did not answer most of the great questions of life, for the ghosts themselves still asked many of the same questions.

Once the mortal population of the world accepted ghosts and the powers they, and these Projectors could wield, disembodied cracks began to form in the disbelief that long held magic at bay. Astral projection was certainly easy to accept under this new light of discovery and soon other psychic powers and phenomena became accepted as truth. New fields of study opened to learn the ways of the newly discovered power or rediscovered disciples.

None would call them magic, but those who deeply studied the field have begun to wonder where one should draw the line dividing psychic powers and the powers others claim are 'magic?' Were the myths of magic of old nothing but little understood psychic powers? No one could say for certain.

As the world was finally coming to grips with these discoveries, more events that could only be described as amazing began to happen. Circa 2008, roughly four years after the discovery of 'psychics', people began to spontaneously erupt with torrents of power, a psychically manifested aura of power. As such, those touched by such power became known as 'The Manifested.' These people wielded powers even the most powerful psychic couldn't come close to matching. The Manifested, it seemed, came in five varieties drawn down ancient elemental divisions. Some whispered of magic, while others spoke openly about unused portions of the human brain aligning to such elements to grant such power.

The public at large, still not ready to collectively admit magical things walked among them, grabbed hold of cultural mainstays for answers. It seemed it was easier for most people to sleep at night if one could reason the world is awash with elemental powered comic book-like superheroes or mutants rather than magical beings returned wielding ancient powers.

The number of Manifested started to slow after the first wave appeared. After the first recorded incidents, only teenagers going through or just past puberty Manifested. While no one could predict who would Manifest, relatives of those already Manifested seemed the most frequent cases.

Statistical comparison of the current number of Manifested in relation to the slacking rate of new Manifested seemed to indicate their numbers would stabilize at around one hundred thousand. The numbers are skewed gender wise: 99% female to 1% male. While no one is sure, intense speculation exists that the power of the Manifested might be genetic and may pass to the offspring.

Thus, in a post space and arms race world, a new kind of race has emerged; the Manifested race. The nations of the world court, recruit and even at times seek to kidnap or subvert the Manifested, as does every shadow player still lurking in the darkness of this world.

The year is now 2012. The world has managed, barely, to account to itself what the Manifested are and represent. The veil that separates the darkness of the world of the supernatural from the light of public admittance is strained almost to the point of breaking. Some groups prepare for their world to be thrust into the light of public knowledge, while some fight fiercer than ever to hold that filmy gauze in place.

They all hope for time to lick their wounds; a few more years to prepare, rebuild or cover up their affairs. No one is prepared for what 2012 will unleash upon them. This is a story set in this time of upheaval. As a power as ancient as the Blood of the Dragons that empowers the Manifested, a power restrained for eons from finding its way to humanity finally re-emerges. This is a story of ancient powers coming to deal with the full host of the Exalted.


End file.
